Missing Journalist Found Dead in Mexico, Mayor Main Suspect

EspañolOn Saturday, January 24, Mexican authorities found the remains of journalist Moisés Sáncez Cerezo, who had been missing since January 2. Investigations carried out by the Veracruz State Attorney General’s Office currently point to Medellín town Mayor Omar Cruz Reyes as the mastermind behind the murder.

Veracruz Attorney General Luis Angél Bravo said that Sánchez was murdered the same day of his capture, and that witness testimony implicated former police officer Clemente Noé Rodriguez in the kidnapping.

Bravo further revealed that video footage shows the alleged murderer and five other individuals confessing their involvement in exchange for police protection for their drug trafficking activities in the area.

According to the prosecutor, local Deputy Police Chief Martín López Meneses ordered the killing of the journalist, however, he allegedly acted under orders from Medellín’s National Autonomist Party mayor. Witnesses told the Attorney General that the mayor repeatedly threatened the journalist before his disappearance. Meneses also serves as chauffeur and bodyguard to Reyes.

The mayor argued that his previous statements were unrelated to Sánchez’s case, and that his conscience was clean. Nevertheless, the prosecution signaled that it will seek to strip Reyes of immunity so that he can be detained and investigated.

The local attorney general cited the allegations the journalist and activist regularly made as the motives behind his murder.

Moisés Sánchez was the founder and editor of local newspaper La Unión, where he frequently exposed and condemned organized-crime related activities in the town of Medellín de Bravo, Veracruz.

Since 2010, under the tenure of Governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa, an additional 10 journalists have been killed in the state of Veracruz.

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